Anyway, that’s the title, feel free to comment if you come up with a better one.

Now, festive season is well underway, Christmas is just around the corner, and the geese aren’t just getting fat, they’ve been shot already. The festivities spread out more and more each year, and work parties get earlier and earlier, so there’s a good chance you’ve already indulged, or at least met with temptation. It is Christmas after all, so you shouldn’t feel too bad, but surely there’s a way you can mix the gaiety with gaining?

Alcohol

The top tip here is to try to keep the nights of debauchery to a minimum and try not to drink too much when you do go out…. but for many of us, the inevitable will happen. Alcohol puts your body into a catabolic state, pretty much shuts down testosterone production, dehydrates you, and, by morning has generally sent blood sugar plummeting. On top of all this, most people don’t realise that alcohol contains almost as many calories per gram as fat. Combine this with the amount of sugar you find in most alcoholic drinks and you do not have a recipe for muscle mass!

So, what’s the best hangover cure?

Taking all those factors into account, plus the fact that it’s Christmas, I prescribe a good old cooked breakfast, with plenty of water and fruit juice for all your festive woes.

Festive Hangover-Cure Breakfast Recipe

Sausages and bacon- I hear some of you hiss! Grill some good quality rashers and bangers for that much needed protein boost. The fats in these will help to pick up testosterone levels. Yes, these aren’t the bodybuilders’ first choice, but look what you did to your body last night!

Grilled tomatoes- Get all them vitamins into your depleted body.

Mushrooms (raw)- Raw mushrooms are a great source of vitamins and minerals. They also contain protein digesting enzymes that are lost in cooking.

Eggs- Poached, boiled or scrambled, we all know the value of egg protein. Allow yourself extra yolks because the fat and cholesterol will boost your test levels.

Baked beans- A good, lean source of protein, vitamins and fibre

Toasted granary bread- Complex carbs, vitamins, minerals and fibre…. and you need it to mop up the bean juice.

Freshly squeezed juice- Get them antioxidants into you and neutralise the debauchery.

Water- Plenty of water combined with the salt in the foods above will help you rehydrate them ravaged muscles.

Christmas Dinner

You certainly can’t argue with the protein content of a traditional Christmas roast-up, and there are tips to make your festive feast more muscle friendly…. but unless you’re training for a competition, I’m sure you can allow one meal to slip, so I’m not going to give them to you. Merry Christmas!

What to Ask Santa For

Here are some suggestions for a muscle-bound Christmas list-

Gift vouchers- Most bodybuilding and supplement shops and websites offer gift vouchers. They say they want to get you something useful, surely this is top of the list!

Egg poacher- If you haven’t already got one, these nifty bits of kitchenware make knocking up poached eggs a doddle.

Fat Gripz- These are a great way to build forearm size and grip strength.

Cortisol lowering mouthpieces- For many, the jury is still out on these, but you will look like the king of the gym with your new addition… maybe.

Shaker- You can get handy shakers with extra compartments for supplements and extra protein powder. Ideal stocking filler.

Getting into the spirit in the gym

Here are a few Christmassy gems (with stupid names) you might want to work into your routine this winter-

Sleigh driving- Finish up your upper body workouts with a couple minutes of battle rope training and eek out that last bit of anaerobic energy.

Pushing the sleigh- Use the weighted sled to really finish off your legs.

Santa sacks- Many gyms now carry heavy sacks or sandbags. Exercises, such as hoisting these up onto your shoulders are a great way to develop dynamic strength and tie them muscle groups together.

Other suggestions

Don’t hang chocolates on your tree this year. Wrap up pieces of beef jerky and let them dangle, temptingly from the branches.

Nuts are always a part of any festive treat layout. Take advantage of these protein and healthy fat laden goodies. Eat all your mates nuts!

Make sure you check your gyms holiday opening hours. Many have been left stranded in the frost, pumped full of pre-workout at this time of year!

Or, just take a week or so off! Taking time out is vital to your long-term goals. Many champions, such as the great Dorian Yates, were big advocates of taking quality rest periods.

]]>http://muscle-munch.com/gainin-around-the-christmas-tree.html/feed0Zen Your Way to a Healthier, Bigger Bodyhttp://muscle-munch.com/zen-your-way-to-a-healthier-bigger-body.html
http://muscle-munch.com/zen-your-way-to-a-healthier-bigger-body.html#commentsFri, 12 Dec 2014 17:06:35 +0000http://muscle-munch.com/?p=5871Life can be stressful. Just when you think that every possible thing that could go wrong, has…. the car won’t start, the boiler packs up and the dog eats the TV controls. At times like this, it’s easy to go completely off the rails. You might swear and shout, and possibly even launch your phone down the garden, along with the dog. People try to calm you with the old adage “Shouting and swearing won’t fix anything”, before they too end up down the garden. Now, above is an extreme example, but many of us are guilty of allowing things to get on top of us. The tension creeps in, the worries pile up, sleep suffers, and we get cranky. What should people be saying to us to really calm us down?

“Stressing and worrying will affect your health and diminish those hard earned gains”

Yes people, it’s true, walking around like a coiled spring can have a drastically negative effect on your health, fitness and bodybuilding goals. While hitting the gym, in itself can be a great stress reliever, it is generally only a short lived respite from life’s woes. As we all know, it is during the rest time between our training sessions that we repair and grow, and this is the time that stress can dish out its negative effects.

Cortisol

Cortisol is a catabolic steroid hormone, released by the adrenal gland in response to stress and other situations, such as low blood sugar. It is essentially the start point of the bodies fight-or-flight response, raises blood sugar in readiness of instant energy, and plays a part in elevating blood pressure. How does it raise blood sugar? It does this by putting the body into a catabolic state, breaking down stored carbs, fats, and proteins for fuel. Yep, you guessed it, these proteins will predominantly come from your muscle tissue.

In a healthy, stress-free person, cortisol levels are at their peak upon waking. This is why it is important to get good sleep and eat a quality breakfast. Every time you wake up, your cortisol levels spike, so avoid that tempting snooze button!

Cortisol is also produced during exercise. This is unavoidable, and is in fact the process by which our muscles gain energy during training. It is for this reason that it is vital you engage in short, intense weight sessions, ideally of no more than 45 minutes, for optimum growth.

Put very simply, cortisol has the opposite effects of the much strived after hormones, testosterone and HGH, therefore must be avoided wherever possible.

But how?

Diet

Eating breakfast as soon as you wake, as well as good post-workout nutrition, will help to allay the effects of cortisol at peak times by stimulating anabolism via the insulin response mechanism.

Eat lots of small meals to avoid a drop in blood sugar.

Avoid excess caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that elevates cortisol.

Glutamine has received some negative press in the last few years, but it may help to reduce the negative effects of cortisol by preventing muscle breakdown.

Vitamin C has been shown to reduce cortisol levels.

A diet rich in fibre, fruit, especially citrus and bananas, as well as vegetables, particularly the green leafy kind, can help lower cortisol. Omega-3 fatty acids, found in oily fish, also help.

Although the endorphins released during exercise counteract many of the negative effects of cortisol, as previously mentioned, weight sessions should be kept under 45 minutes to avoid excess exposure. Aerobic sessions should be between 30 and 45 minutes.

Chill out!

Most importantly, chill out!

You can’t expect to grow to your peak potential if you’re running around all the time, filled with stress and cortisol. When you feel the levels rising, take 5! Calm your mind, make lists, ask for help, breathe, and relax.

Breathing exercises can be learned, that help calm you and reduce that dreaded cortisol. They can also increase lung capacity.

Massage- Treat yourself to a weekly, relaxing, massage. Not only will this relieve stress, it will keep your muscles supple and help avoid injury.

Meditation isn’t just some crackpot idea that’s only done by hippies. Learning to meditate teaches you to be able to withdraw from life’s stresses and be in the present moment. No, you don’t have to sit in awkward positions, chanting. Meditation techniques can be applied virtually anywhere. You can even meditate as you take a relaxing walk to the gym

Yoga is great for relaxation. Again, it’s not just something done by women and hippies, it’s a brilliant way to release tension and get a good stretch. Throw out them preconceptions and give it a go. Yoga lengthens muscles, such as the back and hamstrings, and can seriously up your lifting, particularly squats and deadlifts.

]]>http://muscle-munch.com/zen-your-way-to-a-healthier-bigger-body.html/feed0Terms That Supplement Companies Lovehttp://muscle-munch.com/terms-that-supplement-companies-love.html
http://muscle-munch.com/terms-that-supplement-companies-love.html#commentsFri, 20 Jun 2014 10:38:35 +0000http://www.muscle-munch.com/?p=5604The supplement industry, like all industries, is very fickle and full of terms designed to confuse and baffle consumers, as a result it is hard to make educated decisions as to what to buy or who to trust.

In the following article, we will investigate some of the most common promotional terms intended to separate you from your money and so aiding you on your decisions. The average stream of slick marketing terms is so wide spread across the supplement companies, and to be honest, they drive me crazy! It winds me up to no end to see these cheap tactics being imployed to sell products to people. What follows are some of the most common marketing terms and what they really mean to you, the consumer.

Clinically proven

Whenever I see this term I feel like calling the company up and asking “which clinic exactly is this research from, and where is it located?”

This term means pretty much nothing to the average consumer. What the company is suggesting, is that product has gone through a rigorous clinical trial, however that is very rarely the case.

Patented

This one by far one of the most influential of the deceiving marketing terms used in the industry. When a company uses the term patented, most people instantly assume that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has appraised the product and found it to be so effectual, it’s worthy of a patent. That is just not the case. First of all there are several forms of patents many of which have differing meanings behind them. But generally, a patent means that the company owns the exclusive rights to sell the product for the length of the patent and they have persuaded the US Patent office that the thought, or formula, etc., is unique enough to grant a patent. However, it does not mean in any way shape or form that the product is effective for what is claims to be effective at, or that is backed up by research.

Now, most people would hope that the product was backed up by genuine studies and that’s why the patent office gave the patent, but this is often not the case. All a patent does is protect a company’s legal/financial/ intellectual interests. It is by no means a guarantee that the product is works.

This basically means that there are plenty of ridiculous patents out there which have nothing to do with the effectiveness of a supplement. A brief browse of the patent office web page at www.uspto.gov is very interesting. I’m not slating patents, or the idea of them, they are very important for companies or individuals to protect their concepts or products, but very often, it is just slapped on a supplement to give the impression that the product is more effective than the others on the shelf.

Scientifically formulated

What exactly is the alternative? Unscientifically formulated? Calculated by monkeys working on a typewriter? I would hope that the product which bares this label was formulated with some scientific supporting, but this is rarely the case, sad to say. A huge amount of products are designed with their marketing power in mind, not their scientific strengths.

Research proven

If the corporation has actually gone through the trouble of funding expensive randomised controlled trials at an independent location and the study was then published in a peer–reviewed journal, great! I truly admire that company, however so many of the supplement companies refuse to pay for research to support their own products. The depressing fact is that hardly any companies actually spend money on real research and most prefer to spend money on marketing. If the company has some genuine research in their possession to back up this illustrious claim of “research proven” they should have no problem providing that information, right? Wrong. I have called up a number of these companies just to receive a mixture of junk science or nothing at all. One guy said actually told me that “it’s a marketing term” just to get off the phone as quickly as possible.

What passes as “research” by these companies is astounding. The real harm here is that good companies which have actually gone to the trouble of funding research for their products, have had this term ruined by those which have not jumped through the same hoops.

As you can see, these terms are confusing, so it is best to ignore them when you see them used on a supplement. There are supplements out there which can benefit you and aid your muscle growth, just watch out for some of these terms!

]]>http://muscle-munch.com/terms-that-supplement-companies-love.html/feed0Top Tips to Eating Well – 9 Tips For Eating To Improve Healthhttp://muscle-munch.com/top-tips-to-eating-well-9-tips-to-improve-health.html
http://muscle-munch.com/top-tips-to-eating-well-9-tips-to-improve-health.html#commentsSun, 25 May 2014 17:09:34 +0000http://www.muscle-munch.com/?p=5537There is a common misconception that in order to eat right; it all comes down to calories. I’m going to tell you right now, that you can look and feel fantastic and don’t need to break out a calculator each time you eat. Obtaining the correct nutrition that your body needs in order to grow muscle is a precise science, but it doesn’t have to be unbearable. A problem I find a lot of people make is to plan and track meals too profusely this often results in having trouble sticking to it.

With that said, in order to lose fat, you need to ensure your body is using more energy than it’s taking in, and the energy potential of food is measured in calories.

If you want to gain muscle, your body requires an excess of energy in order to repair and rebuild itself (along with plenty of protein). Therefore, you need to consume a little more than your body burns in an average day to get bigger.

In this article I’m going to reveal some simple rules that you can easily follow to eat well. By obeying these rules, you’ll discover that you can quickly lose or gain weight when you need to whilst feeling healthy and vital.

1. Ensure You Consume Enough Food

As I mentioned earlier, a calorie is a way of quantifying the potential energy that is found in your food. Your body uses a large amount of energy every day, even days when you aren’t active. Just the beating of your heart requires energy; this energy is all acquired through the foods you eat.

As a result, it’s vital that you provide your body with enough; this is even truer when you work out. If you neglect your body, don’t be shocked if you lack the energy to train properly or if you feel exhausted often.

If you work out three or more times per week, use the below formula to guarantee you’re feeding your body what it needs to repair itself.

– Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

– Eat 1.5 grams of carbs per pound of body weight per day.

– Eat 1 gram of healthy fats per 4 pounds of body weight per day.

E.g. a 130 lb woman would have a plan like this:

– 130 grams of protein per day

– 195 grams of carbs per day

– 32 grams of fat per day

This totals around 1,600 calories per day, which should result in slow but stable muscle and strength gains without any fat added along the way, if it is maintained over a long period of time.

However, if your priority is purely to build muscle, add around 500 calories per day to the calculation above. The simplest way to go about achieving this is to increase your carb intake by roughly 50 grams per day, and your fats by around 30 grams per day.

If your priority is to lose fat, then you need to lower around 500 calories per day. The simplest way to achieve this is to lower your carb intake by roughly 90 grams per day, and your protein intake by around 10 grams per day.

It’s so essential that you try to consume high-quality calories. Low quality or “junk food calories”, including white bread, fried foods, chips, and soda, will result in you looking and feeling unfit, whilst consuming good-quality calories, which include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and white meats, will keep you in great shape.

2. Consume Healthy Fats

Fats are the heaviest energy source available for your body. Every gram of fat holds over twice the calories of a gram of carbohydrate or protein. Healthy fats, including those which are found in olive oil, avocados, flax seed oil, many nuts, and other foods, are an essential component for general good health. Fats aid your body in absorbing the other nutrients that you consume; they nurture the nervous system, provide a vital role in maintaining cell structures, regulate hormone levels, etc.

Saturated fats are a variety of fat found primarily in animal products including meat, dairy products, and egg yolks. Certain plant foods also have high saturated fat content; these plant foods include coconut oil, palm oil, and palm kernel oil. The common belief in society today is that eating saturated fat damages your health, however recent studies have shown that incorporating saturated fats into your diet can lower your risk of heart disease.

Trans-fats are scientifically altered saturated fats which have been engineered to provide foods with lengthier shelf lives. Numerous cheap, packaged foods are full of trans-fats, including popcorn, yogurt, and peanut butter, as well as many frozen foods, including frozen pizza, packaged pastries, cakes. Fried foods are often fried in trans-fats. Trans-fats are bad news and consuming high amounts can lead to numerous diseases and complications as they have very little nutritional value for the body, as a general rule you should try to limit your consumption of these fats.

Lots of people eat more fat than is needed for their bodies and thus are adding unnecessary calories to their daily intake. Consuming enough healthy fats every day is pretty straight forward. Here’s how it works:

• Ensure that your intake of saturated fats comparatively low, under 10% of your total calories. Saturated fats are located in foods like meat, dairy products, eggs, coconut oil, bacon fat, and lard. If a fat is solid at room temperature, it’s a saturated fat.

• Avoid trans-fats altogether. Trans-fats as mentioned earlier, trans-fats are located in processed foods such as cookies, cakes, fries, and doughnuts. If you read the label on your food and spot anything along the lines of “hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated oil” it is likely to contain trans-fats, so put it back on the shelf. Having a cheat every now and again and eating foods which contain trans-fats won’t harm anything, but ensure you aren’t consuming them on a regular basis.

• Consume at least half of your daily fat from unsaturated fats such as olive oil, nuts, peanut oil, avocados, flax seed oil, safflower oil, or sesame oil. To tell if a fat is unsaturated, as long as it is a liquid at room temperature, it’s an unsaturated fat.

By simply sticking to the recipes in our recipe section, you’ll evade unhealthy fats and include healthy fats with minimal effort.

3. Eat High Quality Carbohydrates

The carbohydrate is perhaps the most misjudged, criticised, and dreaded macro-nutrient. Due to the high number of spurious diet plans and suggestions out there lots of people associate consuming carbs with getting fat. Whilst it is true that consuming too many carbs can make you fat, just as eating too much protein or fat can. Carbohydrates are not your enemy. They play a vital role in not just muscle growth but in general body function.

Irrespective of what kind of carbohydrate you eat, spinach or pumpkin pie the body breaks it down into two substances – glucose and glycogen. Glucose is often known as “blood sugar,” and it’s an important energy source consumed by your cells for most of the cell functions. Glycogen is a substance which is kept in the liver as well as the muscles and is easily transformed to glucose for instant energy. Whilst you’re lifting weights intensely, your muscles use up the glycogen stores which are there in order to cope with the intensity.

Now, why is spinach good for you but pumpkin pie isn’t? Because your body responds differently to spinach than to pumpkin pie. The terms “simple” and “complex” carbs are often thrown around, and it can be unclear as to what they actually mean. You may also have heard of the glycaemic index, I’m going to explain what all these terms mean.

These terms are actually fairly simple. The glycaemic index is a numerical ranking system which displays how quickly carbohydrates are transformed into glucose in the body. Carbohydrates are graded on a scale of 0 to 100 depending on their effect on blood sugar levels after consumption. A GI rating of 55 and below is deemed “low GI,” 56 to 69 is medium, and 70 and above is high on the index. A “simple” carb is one that is transformed very quickly (high on the glycaemic index), examples of a simple carb include table sugar, honey, and watermelon. A “complex” carbohydrate is one that is converted gradually (is low on the glycaemic index), examples of a complex carb include broccoli, apple, and whole-grain bread.

Knowing where the carbs you are consuming fall on the index is vital information as recent studies have shown a relationship between regular consumption of high-GI carbs and increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

The quantity of carbohydrates that you should consume each day varies depending on what you’re attempting to achieve. Building muscle dictates that you eat a considerable amount of carbs, while dieting to lose weight involves reducing your carbohydrate consumption.

Irrespective of the quantity of carbohydrates you need to consume each day, there is a basic rule you should follow in regards to high, medium and low-glycaemic carbohydrates. Consume carbs which are in the medium–high range of the glycaemic index (60 – 90) around 30 minutes before you exercise, and once again within 30 minutes of finishing your workout.

The primary reason you want to consume carbs before you begin your workout is that you need the energy they provide for your exercise. The reason you want them afterwards is that your muscles’ glycogen stores have been exhausted, and by replenishing the glycogen stores as fast as possible, you actually help your body remain in an anabolic state and not lose muscle tissue.

My personal favourite pre- and post-workout carbs are bananas and rice milk, but other great options include baked potato, instant oatmeal, and fruits that are above 60 on the glycaemic index.

All further carbs you consume should be in the middle or towards the low end of the glycaemic index (60 and below). It really is as straightforward as that. If you obey this rule, you’ll dodge many issues that people endure due to the energy highs and lows that come with eating high-GI carbs that burn the body out.

I have included a list of common snack foods with their average GI scores. The GI scores do vary slightly from brand to brand, but not by much. As a general rule I would recommend staying away from these types of carbohydrates.

(The following information is sourced from the University of Sydney and the University of Harvard)

Particular fruits, such as watermelon and dates, are bad snack foods because of where they fall on the glycaemic index.

If you’re uncertain about a particular carb, look it up to see where it falls on the glycaemic index. If it’s higher than 60, just leave it out of your meals that aren’t directly before or after working out.

4. Eat Your Fruits & Vegetables

Your body needs many different nutrients in order to function at its best. It is impossible to look and feel good on only protein and carbs. You need calcium in order for your muscles to contract and relax correctly. You need fibre to aid move food through along the digestive tract. You need iron to transport oxygen to your cells and assist in ATP production.

There are lots of other “little helpers” which your body requires if you want it to operate its many physiological processes, and fruits and vegetables hold many important nutrients that you can’t get from vitamin supplements alone. By consuming 3 – 5 servings of both fruits and vegetables per day, you experience the many advantages that these nutrients provide to your body, such as lowering your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many other diseases.

Despite what many people say and think, this isn’t hard to do. An average -sized piece of fruit is one serving, as is half a cup of berries. A cup of greens is a serving of vegetables, as is half a cup of other vegetables.

In spite of this, fruit juices, are different. While on the surface it appears to be an easy way to consume your daily fruits, however in reality they are actually not much more than glorified sugar water. Not only do the majority of fruit juices have sugar added, but the juice has been detached from the fruit’s fibrous flesh, which results in the slowing down of the metabolism of the sugars. Without the pulp, the juice is a very high-glycaemic drink. It is generally a better idea to drink some water and eat a whole fruit instead.

The exception to this is making juice yourself through the use of a juicer or blender to grind up the whole piece of fruit, and ensuring that nothing has been removed.

Fruits widely considered as the healthiest are apples, bananas, blueberries, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, and pineapples.

Vegetables often considered as the healthiest are asparagus, broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, and eggplant.

5. Plan Your Meals Properly

I’ve seen plenty of people’s meal plans which are unknowingly engineered for getting fat. They usually involve skipping breakfast, eating a junk food lunch and then coming home ravenous and having a big dinner with some dessert.

A much more successful strategy is to consume smaller meals more often, say every 3 – 4 hours, and including protein in each one (this will result in you feeling full and satisfied).

A large proportion of your daily carbohydrates should come before and after training, when your body needs them most. Personally I like to eat about 10 – 15% of my daily carbs before training, and about 30 – 40% after, in my post-workout meal.

It’s vital when dieting to lose weight, to ensure that you do not consume carbs within several hours of going to bed. You may have heard this advice before, however usually with the wrong explanation for it.

There’s no scientific evidence which has shown that eating carbs at night or before bed will result in gaining fat. However, it can hinder fat loss. This is because the insulin released by the body to process and absorb carbs prevents fat being used as an energy source and therefore stops fat from being burnt. Your body burns the most fat while sleeping, and so going to sleep with an increase in insulin levels hinders fat loss.

Further studies have suggested that the production and processing of insulin tampers with the production and processing of growth hormone, which has strong fat-burning properties as well as having an important role in muscle building. Your body produces much of its growth hormone while sleeping, so again, if your body is filled with insulin when you go to sleep, your growth hormone production could suffer, which could result in you not having the muscle-building and fat-burning effects you could otherwise have had.

As an overall rule, when you’re dieting to lose weight, avoid eating carbs within 4 – 5 hours of going to sleep. You should only eat lean proteins after dinner. I also recommend following this same rule whilst bulking too, not because I’m concerned about fat burning, but because I don’t want to inhibit my growth hormone production.

You can disperse your fats out across the day. I prefer to start my day with 1 – 2 tablespoons of a blend of essential fatty acids which you can buy from most good supplement stores, if you don’t want to simply stick to the sources of healthy fats given earlier.

6. Drink Water!

The amount of water in the human body ranges from 50-75%. The average adult human body is 50-65% water, averaging around 57-60% Muscles are around 70% water. These facts alone tell you how vital it is to stay hydrated in order to maintain good health and proper body function. Your body’s ability to digest, transport, and absorb nutrients from food is reliant on proper fluid intake. Water aids the body in the gym by preventing injuries by padding joints and other soft-tissue areas. When your body is dehydrated, almost every physiological process is affected.

Water truly is one of the best things you can provide your body with, it has zero calories, and so it can never cause you to gain weight irrespective of how much you drink. (The only way you can harm your body by consuming water is by consuming several gallons of it in a short space of time.)

The Institute of Medicine concluded in 2004 that women should consume about 91 ounces of water—or three-quarters of a gallon—per day, and men should consume about 125 ounces per day.

Keep in mind that these numbers also include the water which is found in food. An average person consumes around 80% of their water from drinking it and other drinks, and about 20% from the food they eat.

Personally I’ve been consuming 1 – 2 gallons of water per day for years now, which is higher than the IOM recommends, however I sweat a fair amount due to exercise.

Try to ensure that the water you consume is filtered, purified water and not tap water. There’s a large variation between drinking clean, alkaline water, because your body is able to fully utilize it, this is not always the case with tap water depending on where you live.

7. Cut Back On Salt

The normal American diet is so over-saturated with sodium it is truly unbelievable.

The Institute of Medicine advises 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day as an acceptable intake level for most adults. The CDC states that the average American aged 2 and up consumes 3,436 milligrams of sodium per day.

Consuming too much sodium causes water retention, giving you a podgy appearance and it can result in high blood pressure and heart disease.

Frozen and canned foods are typically full of sodium, as are cured meats like bacon and sausage.

When possible, I like to choose low- or no-sodium ingredients for the recipes in our recipe section. When I need to add salt, I use sea salt or Himalayan rock salt because it has plenty of naturally occurring minerals, whereas table salt has been cleaned to remove “impurities,” which includes these vital elements.

8. Cheat Correctly

Lots of people who are grappling with diets talk about cheat days. The principle is that if you’re good throughout the week, you can go wild on the weekends and not gain fat. This can be the case if you have a very fast metabolism, however if you don’t then that’s not how it works. If you obey a strict diet, you can lose 1 – 2 pounds per week. However, if you go crazy at the weekend it is surprisingly easy to put it all back on in the one weekend.

To counter this, I recommend that you don’t think of having “cheat days” and instead consider yourself to be consuming “cheat meals”, these are meals where you eat more or less anything you want. When done once or twice per week, a cheat meal is not only satisfying, but it can actually help you lose fat.

How?

First there’s the psychological lift which having a cheat meal provides, it keeps you happy and motivated which results in sticking to your diet easier in the long run.

There’s also a physiological boost, recent studies on overfeeding (binging on food) shows that by doing so can result in your metabolic rate being boosted from anywhere between 3-10%. This sounds good but it actually doesn’t mean much as you would have to consume anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand extra calories in a day to achieve the full effect.

More interesting are the effects that cheating has on a hormone called leptin. Leptin regulates hunger, metabolic rate, appetite, motivation, and libido, as well as assisting in many other functions in your body.

Oppositely, when you give your body more energy than it requires, leptin levels are increased, which can then have positive effects on fat oxidation, thyroid activity, mood, and even testosterone levels.

So, we want to increase our leptin levels, but what is the best way to achieve it?

Consuming carbohydrates is the most effective way of doing so. Second to that is eating protein. Consuming dietary fats are not very effective at increasing leptin levels, and studies have shown that alcohol actually inhibits it.

Therefore, if your weight has plateaued and you’re short-tempered and demotivated, a good kick of leptin might be all you need to get the scales moving again. Have yourself a good cheat meal full of protein and carbs, and don’t forget to enjoy it.

9. The Bottom Line

Some people find it extremely challenging to give up their bad eating habits. That said, try to keep in mind the benefits which have been raised during this article:

• Your health and general well being will increase, it may take a while but I assure you that it will happen. You will stop feeling lethargic and you won’t have the mental fogginess that comes with being full of unhealthy food each day.

• On your cheat days you will value the “bad” foods so much more as you only have it once or twice a week.

• Over time you will learn to enjoy the healthy foods. Even if they don’t taste great at first, try to get into a routine and soon you’ll crave brown rice and apples instead of doughnuts and pizza. Your body will adapt.

]]>http://muscle-munch.com/top-tips-to-eating-well-9-tips-to-improve-health.html/feed0Larry Scott Dies Aged 75http://muscle-munch.com/larry-scott-dies-aged-75.html
http://muscle-munch.com/larry-scott-dies-aged-75.html#commentsSun, 09 Mar 2014 17:00:23 +0000http://www.muscle-munch.com/?p=5284Body building enthusiasts across the world are mourning the loss of one of the true champions of the sport today; Larry Scott was the first winner of the celebrated Mr Olympia competition, holding the titles in both 1965 and 1966 making him the only undefeated Mr Olympia in history.

Larry was first diagnosed in 2010 with Alzheimer’s disease, and died on the 8th of March 2014 due to complications with the illness.

Larry was one of the most influential players in the body building world especially in its infancy, setting the bench mark high with arguably the best arms of all time. He played a major role influencing others who followed in his wake, including Arnold Schwarzenegger who was influenced by Larry, learning a lot from his posing style.

Born on October 12, 1938 in central Idaho, Scott first started training in the gym at the age of 16 and by just 20; he had won the Mr. Idaho competition. Subsequently moving to California, he swiftly won Mr. California (1960), Mr. Pacific Coast (1961), Mr. America (1962), and Mr. Universe (1964).

When Joe Weider formed the IFBB’s Mr. Olympia competition, Scott won the first two contests in 1965 and 1966. After his 1966 Olympia win, Scott retired, although he made a brief return in 1979 before retiring from competition for good in 1980.

Larry Scott was the most prevalent bodybuilding star of his time; also a fitness model he featured numerous times in magazines such as Mr America, Muscle Builder, Demi Gods, Muscleboy, and The Young Physique and swept America, the phenomenon coined as “Larry Fever.”

Although the man himself may longer be with us, his legacy will live on for as long as the sport does.

]]>http://muscle-munch.com/2014-arnold-classic-212-results.html/feed0The Poor Bodybuilder: Big Results on a Skinny Budgethttp://muscle-munch.com/the-poor-bodybuilder-big-results-on-a-skinny-budget.html
http://muscle-munch.com/the-poor-bodybuilder-big-results-on-a-skinny-budget.html#commentsWed, 17 Apr 2013 11:44:51 +0000http://www.muscle-munch.com/?p=5176Have you ever thought to yourself that if you only had the time, money and conveniences of a successful competitive bodybuilder you too could achieve a physique of your dreams?

You too could workout when and how you wanted too, prepare and eat all the right kinds of foods and supplements, and get the rest you need to repair and grow new muscle. You say to yourself that you just don’t have the time and resources like those “other guys” do. Those “other guys” have “the life” conducive to the bodybuilding lifestyle. It is so easy for them and you have such a difficult time inching up the ladder scrapping every morsel of time and bit knowledge just to gain an ounce of progress.

Hopefully this article will shed a little light on scheduling your time, finding ways to save money on food and supplements, convenient food preparation, and other little tricks to help you reach your goals a little easier. Sometimes all it takes is a little tweaking to make your workouts a little more effective and to get more out of each set, rep, meal and supplement you take. Being more efficient and effective will enable you to reach those goals all the while saving a little time and money on your journey.

Below is a list of tips and tricks to help you make the road to success a little easier on your schedule and your wallet.

1 . Wheel and Deal

When joining a gym see if the facility is running any specials such as the first month being free or waiving the registration fee. Maybe they have a special couple’s rate for your significant other. Most fitness facilities want your business so they will try to work with you to get you in their door, but don’t be afraid to ask about special offers just in case they were not offered up front. For college students there are ways to utilize on-campus facilities such as recreation centers specifically for students which are usually included in the price for tuition. Many facilities will also offer student discounts.

2. Use Musclesave

We all drink whey protein and take supplements, there are always offers running for various supplements & discount codes. Check out Musclesave.com, I found them earlier this year & they automatically collect all supplement discounts/vouchers off the internet and put them in one place!

3. Buy in Bulk

Get a membership at a local wholesale warehouse. They sell foods in bulk which break down to be cheaper per serving. Remember when buying in bulk to freeze most of your meats and thaw as you prepare them for the week ahead. You can easily buy large amounts of chicken, ground meats, beef, oatmeal, rice, frozen vegetables, milk, and other staples of a bodybuilder’s diet plan. You will have large amounts of food and fewer trips to the store.

4. Clip Coupons

If you do not have access to one of those wholesale stores you can always find ways to save at your local grocer. Many stores have special discount cards, coupons to save 10 or 15%, and 2 for 1 deal. Keep an eye on their deals and what time of the week they are running them.

5. Brown Bag It

Try to prepare your meals at home as much as possible. Take meals to work instead of going out to lunch every day, make smoothies and protein shakes at home instead of buying them pre made, and going out to dinner should be kept to a minimum. This will ensure you are eating all of your bodybuilding friendly meals on a regular basis and will give you consistency and keep you on a schedule toward your goals. Make going to lunch or dinner a treat and something that you do only once a week or so.

6. One at a Time

No one said you had to use every supplement on the planet to guarantee success. Try one supplement at a time to see what effects it will have. You will know if most are working within six weeks or so. This will not only save you money in the long run but will also let you know which ones work and which ones you are wasting your time with. Experiment and stick with the ones that work for you.

7. Spend Your Time Wisely

If you are the type to go home from work before hitting the gym, save some time and pack a gym bag and head to the gym right after work. If time permits you may want to train in the morning before work or class to free up time for other things in your personal life. It takes a great commitment to schedule your time wisely. If time is not on your side when in the gym try supersets and staggered sets during your workout. It not only saves time but will also give you a cardio effect. Do calves in between sets of arms or superset chest and back or biceps and triceps together.

So there you have it, just a few tips for the financially struggling but committed bodybuilder. There are ways to your goals you just have to be creative and careful in your choices. If you want it bad enough you will find resources and creative techniques to get you there without breaking your bank. Good luck.

Fitness is a passion that has taken over and changed my life in every way. As a teen, I replaced dancing with weight training on my own accord, and enjoyed the improvements to my body and self esteem.

The gym became my sanctuary – throwing on my music and pumping out a killer workout is how I deal with stress. There have been difficult times in my life where I could be found there at 3 am! This passion became a sport for me when I had hit a plateau and needed a goal to help me take my physique to the next level. Learning proper dieting techniques while training for my first show likely saved me from developing an eating disorder (which is why I am so proud to share my knowledge now with other women through ContestPrep.com). The new information also corrected errors in my approach to exercise (such as too much cardio). When stepping on stage to win that first Fitness competition, ‘Jewels’ re-invented herself and finally discovered the right path in life.

What your diet consists of and why?

I admittedly eat low carb when dieting for a show or big photo-shoot – it’s the only way I can get my lower body to lean out the way I like. I do feel energetic, happy and healthy eating this way, and my workouts are killer, so my body has adjusted. I also don’t do cheat meals – I find they are an unhealthy obsession for me, and I am left feeling disappointed, puffy and discouraged. Instead I treat myself to a massage or go shopping if I need a reward for my hard work or break from my routine. A few of my ‘happy places’ in Winnipeg are Paramix on Osborne, Splurge on River, Lululemon and Aldo – it’s always worthwhile to be fit when I rock that new outfit to the gym or to an event!

What supplements do you use?

I believe food is the best supplement – there is no quick, over the counter fix for a bad diet. However there are certainly fantastic products that can help in addition to clean eating. I use CLA, BCAAs, Glutamend, Omega Oil, Pre-workout supplements such as Fubar, creatine (Purple K), SubQ at certain times of the year to help my fat loss and energy levels, Magnum r BioX protein powders, and ALWAYS incorporate a multivitamin to ensure my body has all the nutrients it needs.

What does your current work-out routine look like?

My workout routine has varied over the years – it’s interesting to try different splits and schedules to see what your body responds best to. My winning physique is built with 3 workouts per day – cardio before breakfast, weight training (early afternoon) and cardio again before my final meal of the day.

Monday: Legs

Tuesday: Shoulders

Wednesday: Back/Arms

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Legs

Saturday: Shoulders

Sunday: Back/Arms

What are your max lifts?

Rather than excelling for my strength in the gym, I think I stand out for my endurance and flexibility. I will begin a leg workout with BB Squats to 185 + lbs, but superset each set with pop squats, burpees, bosu ball squats or glute hip thrusts x 20-30 reps, and stretch into splits. My upper body workouts often incorporate core with every superset, and I can shoulder press 50 lb DBs then do a few handstand push-ups or hold a handstand plank for 30-60 seconds!

]]>http://muscle-munch.com/muscle-munch-talks-with-wbff-jewels-julie-bonnett.html/feed010 Rare & Badass Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes & Photoshttp://muscle-munch.com/10-rare-badass-arnold-schwarzenegger-quotes-photos-2.html
http://muscle-munch.com/10-rare-badass-arnold-schwarzenegger-quotes-photos-2.html#commentsThu, 31 Jan 2013 13:20:00 +0000http://www.muscle-munch.com/?p=5454Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of Hollywood’s biggest and most famous stars who has proven that with hard work and perseverance anyone can make their dreams come true. Checkout out some of his rarest and most badass photos below!

1. “The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”

2. “I never set limits or created mental barriers. You may have read that I imagined my biceps as big as mountain peaks when I did my curling exercises. This visualization process was essential if I was to gain the kind of mass and size I needed to win the Mr. Olympia contest against monsters like Sergio Oliva and Lou Ferrigno …”

3. “Experiencing this pain in my muscles and aching and going on and on is my challenge. The last three or four reps is what makes the muscles grow. This area of pain divides a champion from someone who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens. I have no fear of fainting. I do squats until I fall over and pass out. So what? It’s not going to kill me. I wake up five minutes later and I’m OK. A lot of other athletes are afraid of this. So they don’t pass out. They don’t go on.”

4. “Good things don’t happen by coincidence. Every dream carries with it certain risks, especially the risk of failure. But I am not stopped by risks. Suppose a great person takes the risk and fails. Then the person must try again. You cannot fail forever. If you try ten times, you have a better chance of making it on the eleventh try than if you didn’t try at all.”

5. “As a kid I always idolized the winning athletes. It is one thing to idolize heroes. It is quite another to visualize yourself in their place. When I saw great people, I said to myself: “I can be there.”

6. “We all have great inner power. The power is self-faith. There?s really an attitude to winning. You have to see yourself winning before you win. And you have to be hungry. You have to want to conquer!”

8. “Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.”

9. “I was always interested in proportion and perfection. When I was fifteen, I took off my clothes and looked in the mirror. When I stared at myself naked, I realized that to be perfectly proportioned I would need twenty-inch arms to match the rest of me.”